Furlow Wins Edgewood Alder Election

by Dereen Shirnekhi and Laura Glesby

Longtime Democratic ward co-chair Randall Furlow won a special election Tuesday to represent Edgewood’s Ward 24 on the Board of Alders. 

Furlow received 278 votes to fellow Democratic candidate Lindsey Eichler Tengatenga’s 151 votes at the polls.

When taking into account the early and absentee votes, the final tally was 315 for Furlow and 179 for Tengatenga.

The Ward 24 alder seat has been vacant since Evette Hamilton, who had represented the ward for 15 years, stepped down at the end of September. Furlow, who is a pastor, received the Democratic ward committee’s endorsement. Both Furlow and Tengatenga expressed support for improved school conditions, housing affordability, and safer streets.

Furlow will now fill out the rest of Hamilton’s two-year term, which runs through the end of 2027.

The special election — coming a week after the Nov. 3 general election — saw a 23.4 percent turnout, with 494 of 2,110 eligible voters casting ballots.

Close to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, as the polls neared closing, two competing clusters of campaign supporters stood outside the Ellsworth Avenue firehouse. Among Furlow’s supporters were Mayor Justin Elicker; New Haven Rising activists Remedy Sharif and Jaime Myers McPhail; and Alders Frank Douglass, Angel Hubbard, Brittiany Mabery-Niblack, Elias Theodore, and Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow. (Richard Furlow is also Randall’s cousin.)

When the numbers were announced, Randall Furlow’s supporters released confetti and cheered loudly.

“Everything that we have envisioned is about to come to pass,” Randall Furlow said during his victory speech. “Ward 24 spoke and spoke very loudly. I think the message is plain and clear that I am the one they chose.”

“The work has just begun,” he added.

A New Haven Public Schools graduate with generational roots in New Haven, Randall Furlow, who is 47, has said that labor power and educational equality are among his top priorities.

Tengatenga, an equity-focused nonprofit leader, ran with the goal of making government more transparent for her neighbors. 

“I am excited about the opportunity to serve my community,” Randall Furlow told the Independent on Tuesday. “Now, the responsibility is on me to make them proud.”

Tuesday’s special election for alder is the third this year, preceded by special elections in East Rock/Fair Haven’s Ward 9 (where Maria-Threese Serana filled a seat vacated by Caroline Tanbee Smith) and Downtown/East Rock’s Ward 7 (where Christine Kim filled a seat vacated by Eli Sabin).